Tag Archives: connecticut personal injury lawyers

Though it seems hard to believe in 2017, there once was a time when you found more people walking than driving – particularly in Connecticut’s cities. Trolley service was also a part of urban life – moving thousands efficiently every day.

Enter the Ford Motor Company and the Model T in 1908. Suddenly the automobile became a central part of American life – and changed the way we lived forever.

It’s interesting to note that for many Americans living in cities in the U.S., the arrival of the automobile was unwelcome. Streets, once the domain of pedestrians and an occasional trolley car, increasingly became the domain of the motorcar.

And with an increase in motorcar traffic came an ever steeper rise in accidents involving cars and pedestrians.

In the first four years after World War I, more Americans died in automobile accidents than had been killed during battle in Europe.

In the early years of the automobile, there were no crosswalks and few if any street signs – and few if any laws governing the use of cars. In that period, drivers were not even required to be licensed.

By the end of the 1920s, more than 200,000 Americans had been killed by automobiles. Most of the fatalities involved pedestrians in cities…the majority of those killed were children.

The crisis actually grew so grave that Herbert Hoover launched the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety as Commerce Secretary under President Coolidge. Organizations interested in the topic of road safety were invited to attend, with the mission to establish standardized traffic regulations for the nation.

Sadly, the conference’s biggest players were all representatives of the auto industry. As a result, the group’s recommendations prioritized private motor vehicles over all other transit modes.

Much has been written about the epidemic of student-on-student sexual abuse on college campuses in America. It’s a problem in Connecticut as well.

Did you know it also threatens thousands of children in elementary, middle and high schools across the U.S.?

The Associated Press (AP) just completed a lengthy investigation into the problem and their findings are disturbing.

They found approximately 17,000 official reports of sexual abuse over a four year period and believe that number is just the tip of the iceberg. They discovered that sexual abuse occurs anywhere students are left unsupervised including bathrooms, hallways, locker rooms and school buses – with victims and offenders as young as five or six.

Are there warning signs schools and parents can use to identify possible problems?

Almost weekly there’s news of another company choosing to deceive consumers about the safety of their products – always in the name of profit.

The latest company to come under scrutiny is Purdue Pharma – makers of the popular opioid painkilling drug OxyContin.

The State of Illinois is now suing the company for consumer fraud and for profiting from that deception. The state joins a growing number of jurisdictions (CA, WV, WA) charging that Purdue Pharma intentionally misled the public about the safety of OxyContin or allowed the sale of the drug in excessively large quantities to businesses suspected of trafficking in the drug.

What is the nature of the claims against Purdue Pharma?

According to prosecutors and the LA Times, Purdue Pharma is guilty of providing the FDA with incomplete information about the drug when it was first introduced. They are also allegedly guilty of making exaggerated and knowingly false claims about the duration of dose effects and for actively permitting the sale of OxyContin to practitioners and pharmacies suspected of being drug traffickers.

Why do so many companies make choices like the ones Purdue Pharma did in this case?

Anyone who’s ever been injured in an accident knows the challenges that follow. First, there’s the need for proper medical care and questions about if and how soon you can return to work or normal activity. And then there are financial and legal matters to consider, such as who pays the medical bills and whether a lawyer is needed to help protect your rights?

For decades now, workplace accidents and workplace deaths have been in decline – thanks in large part to the actions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Despite that good news, almost three million workers suffer injuries on the job in America each year – a rate of three cases per 100 full-time workers.

Now, with the recent uptick in employment numbers comes news that workplace accident rates are rising in some industries – the first such rise recorded in years.

Particularly noteworthy has been the sharp increase in construction worker injuries in the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting a jump of 27% in the number of fatal workplace injuries among those workers.

For over 60 years, attorneys at the Connecticut personal injury law firm of RisCassi & Davis have worked hard to improve the lives of those who’ve suffered injuries due the carelessness or negligence of others.

Founding partners, Leon RisCassi and William Davis, began the firm in 1955, an era when the rights of the injured were severely and almost shockingly limited. Leon and Bill fought hard to change that and give consumers the right to protect themselves from harm caused by others. Since that time, the firm has been a consistent leader in bringing about needed changes in the law – including laws such as the Connecticut Product Liability Act – and winning cases on behalf of our clients.

What’s more, the law firm has received both national and regional recognition from certification organizations and from our peers for our work in the field of personal injury law.

Our latest honor comes to us from New England Super Lawyers. Less than 5% of all attorneys in the New England states receive this honor. We are pleased to announce that all but our two most recently admitted attorneys (12 out of 14) have been selected for inclusion in New England Super Lawyers for 2016.

If you or a loved one is ever injured in an accident that is the result of a car accident, a defective product or medical malpractice, call a qualified Connecticut personal injury lawyer. A knowledgeable and well trained personal injury lawyer can help you fight powerful corporate interests when you’ve been hurt, ensuring that you’re not harassed or abused and that your rights are protected.

For over 60 years, the Connecticut personal injury attorneys at RisCassi & Davis have been working hard to protect our clients. Please contact us if we can help you. The consultation is free and there is no obligation of any kind. And – there is no fee or other costs unless we are successful on your behalf.

“In the last few years, powerful corporate lawyers have begun encouraging their corporate clients to insert clauses into consumer contracts that protect those companies from all class action lawsuits.

The motivation for this strategy?

It’s as simple as it is wrong. These lawyers simply want to shield the corporate profits of their clients in the event a corporation’s products or services cause harm to consumers.”

We wrote those paragraphs almost a year ago – and in that article we talked about the harm caused by this new tactic to nursing home clients across Connecticut and the rest of the country.

On September 28th, 2016 – the U.S. government’s Department of Health and Human Services issued a ruling that bars any nursing home that receives federal funding from requiring that its residents resolve any disputes in arbitration, instead of court.

This new rule, which will affect over 1.5 million nursing home patients across America, will prevent nursing homes from forcing claims of elder abuse, sexual harassment and even wrongful death into the private system of justice known as arbitration.